Headsets are widely used, both in noisy environments in general, in office settings, and while listening to music or entertainment anywhere.
Many of the headsets include one or both of passive and active noise reducing functionalities, limiting a user's exposure to external or environmental noise by preventing ambient noise from reaching the ear of a user.
Passive noise reduction in headsets typically occurs by attenuating sound waves as they reach a user's ears, either by means of an enclosure around the outer ear of a user, such as ear cushions, or by means of e.g. ear gels extending in to the ear canal and at least partly blocking the ear canal.
Active noise reduction headsets typically comprise electronic circuits which are used to generate anti-noise signals which destructively interfere with ambient sound to cancel the ambient sound. Active noise reduction headsets may have different settings allowing for the effect of the active noise reduction to have a smaller or larger effect to suit different users' preferences.
For such headsets comprising either or both passive and active noise reduction, often a hear-through functionality is provided. This enables the user to hear his or her own voice in a more natural way, which increases the comfort level of the user when he is speaking, and furthermore allows the user to speak at a volume level suited for a present audio level in the environment.
Typically, the headsets include a switch to select when the hear-through mode should be activated.
In some cases, it may however, be advantageously to automatically change the settings of the headset.
It is known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 8,798,283 that certain external events, such as voice or an alarm may trigger the hear-through mode. However, in the absence of such specific events, the user will have to manually trigger for example a hear-through mode.